Avellino Cathedral: A Romanesque, Baroque, and Neoclassical Cathedral in Italy
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.9
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian, Kingdom of Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Norman, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page18 sections
History
Avellino Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Avellino, Italy, built as a Romanesque church between 1132 and 1166 and later transformed through Baroque and Neoclassical rebuilding. Dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint Modestinus, it is the seat of the bishops of the Diocese of Avellino and the principal religious monument of the city and diocese.
Romanesque foundation
Bishop Roberto of Avellino initiated the construction of the Romanesque cathedral in the twelfth century. Its central portal was made in 1133 and enlarged by Bishop Guglielmo in 1167. The crypt may preserve the place of an earlier cathedral belonging to the Lombard civitas Abellini, a Lombard civic settlement associated with the ancient city of Avellino.
The cathedral retained its Romanesque appearance until the end of the seventeenth century. During the eighteenth century, successive renovations changed the interior into a Baroque design. These alterations included the installation of the coffered ceilings and the addition of paintings by Michele Ricciardi.
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century transformation
Around 1788, Bishop Martinez ordered the rearrangement of the square in front of the cathedral and changes to its access stairs. The exterior underwent a more extensive transformation in the nineteenth century, when Bishop Francesco Gallo initiated a comprehensive rebuilding and enlargement. Pasquale Cardola redesigned the facade between 1857 and 1868, and Vincenzo Varriale reshaped the interior between 1880 and 1889. These works gave the cathedral its present Neoclassical exterior while preserving the Baroque character of much of the interior.
War damage, earthquake, and religious observances
Bombing during the Second World War damaged the cathedral. The November 1980 Irpinia earthquake caused further harm and led to major stabilization, structural consolidation, and adaptation to seismic standards. The latest restoration was completed in 1985 on the initiative of Bishop Pasquale Venezia. The former seminary beside the cathedral collapsed in the earthquake, and archaeological excavations on that side now expose remains of earlier buildings.
The cathedral remains closely associated with Avellino’s religious calendar. On 15 August, the wooden statue of the Assumption is carried in procession. The city’s patron saints, Modestinus, Florentinus, and Flavianus, are celebrated on 14 February. Other observances include the Good Friday procession of the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows and the dead Christ after veneration of the Holy Thorn relic, and the raising of the Assumption banner on 26 July, which begins the city’s principal Assumption celebrations.
Remains
Avellino Cathedral stands in the historic center of the city on the Terra hill. Its surviving architectural fabric brings together a Neoclassical facade, a Baroque interior arranged on a Latin-cross plan, and a Romanesque crypt beneath the transept. The church has a central nave, two side aisles, a transept opening toward the deep presbytery, and ten side chapels.
Facade and exterior
Marble facade and portals
The facade is faced with white and grey marble, alabaster, and basalt. A cornice divides it into two levels, while four columns organize the lower level into five bays. Three entrance portals occupy this lower section. Two stone plaques beside the portals recall the central doorway’s construction in 1133 and enlargement in 1167, while a third commemorates the nineteenth-century facade.
All three doors are hand-chiselled bronze works by Giovanni Sica, a sculptor from Avellino. The central door presents scenes from the religious and civil history of Avellino and its diocese. Above it, the lunette contains a relief of the Last Supper. White-marble statues of Saint Modestinus, a bishop and martyr regarded as Avellino’s principal patron, and Saint William of Vercelli, the abbot and founder associated with the monastery of Montevergine, occupy niches on either side.
Approach and campanile
The approach is bordered by a Late Baroque marble balustrade decorated with carved symbols and alabaster elements. Its access stairs were modified when the cathedral square was rearranged around 1788. On the right side, the campanile was built in several periods. Its square lower section is the oldest part and incorporates large stones and marble elements taken from Roman buildings, described as dating from the first century BC. The tower contains five bells.
Nave, aisles, and chapels
Nave ceiling and painted decoration
Inside, pilasters separate the central nave from the two side aisles. The coffered ceiling of the nave covers the earlier roof beams, and its central canvas, The Assumption of the Virgin, was painted by Michele Ricciardi between 1702 and 1705. Four medallions around it show objects associated with the Litany of Loreto: a house, a star, a tower, and a rose.
Ten small cupolas illuminate the side aisles. Their paintings of Gospel episodes from the life of the Virgin were originally made by Achille Iovine and later repainted by Ovidio De Martino after damp damaged the earlier work. Iovine also painted twenty prophets or other biblical figures in the arches separating the aisles, together with the apostles Peter and Paul in the arch leading to the transept. Two paintings beneath the cornice show the Holy Family and Saint Lawrence the Martyr. Four niches contain plaster statues of the Four Evangelists, while five paintings above the cornice, by Angelo Michele Ricciardi, depict Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Charles Borromee, Saint Andrew Avellino, Saint Modestinus of Antioch, and Saint Cajetan of Thiene.
Southern chapels
The southern side contains the Chapel of Saint Gerard, with a Baroque marble altar and a statue of Saint Gerard Maiella. The Chapel of the Magi has an altar dedicated to the Three Kings and a late-sixteenth-century Adoration of the Magi by the Flemish painter Pietro Torres, who worked in Naples. The Chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua contains an old wooden statue formerly kept in the Church of San Francesco in Piazza Libertà.
The Chapel of the Crucifixion contains an old painting of the Crucifixion and a reliquary holding a Holy Thorn donated by Charles I of Anjou, the thirteenth-century Angevin ruler of southern Italy and Sicily. These chapels and their furnishings preserve different phases of the cathedral’s devotional and artistic history.
Northern chapels
The Chapel of the Seven Sorrows was formerly the primitive baptistery. A dressed statue of the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows stands beneath a canopy, with the dead Christ at her feet. The Chapel of the Annunciation contains an ancient canvas of the Annunciation. In the Chapel of the Assumption, a polychrome-marble altar houses the wooden statue of the Immaculate Conception, locally venerated as the Assumed Virgin.
The statue is made from olive wood. Nicolò Fumo, a sculptor and architect associated with the Neapolitan Baroque, carved it and treated it by cooking the wood in oil. The statue is carried through the city on 15 August. The northern side also includes the Chapel of the Rosary, with a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, formerly dedicated to Saint Alfonso Maria de Liguori, with a wooden statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Transept and presbytery
Transept chapels
Steps connect the aisles with the transept, whose center contains the new altar, ambo, a raised stand for proclaiming scripture, and baptismal font. The Chapel of Saint Modestinus, also called the Chapel of the Treasure of Saint Modestinus, opens from the northern side of the transept beside the presbytery, the area around the main altar reserved principally for the clergy. It contains reliquaries, containers for preserving or displaying relics, holding the remains of the diocesan patron saints, together with a silver bust of Saint Modestinus. It is regarded as the cathedral’s most important chapel.
The Chapel of the Holy Trinity opens on the southern side of the transept. Its name comes from a Renaissance-style relief of the Trinity dating from the middle of the sixteenth century. Beneath the transept, the crypt forms a separate lower level of the cathedral.
Apse and high altar
The apse contains sixteenth-century wooden choir stalls carved with scenes from the Passion and Death of Christ. The present high altar was installed in 1813 after being transferred from the Camaldolese hermitage of the Incoronata at Sant’Angelo a Scala. Its tabernacle is surmounted by a ciborium, an architectural canopy over an altar or tabernacle, made in 1616 by the Carrara sculptor Francesco Balsimelli.
The altar replaced an earlier one, while a former altar attributed to Cosimo Fanzago was later moved to the church of Sorbo Serpico. Nine medallions in the upper apse portray the first bishops of Avellino, most of whom are described as legendary. The apse vault contains representations of the Beatitudes and Christ, along with three frescoes by Achille Iovine depicting episodes from the life of Saint Modestinus.
A long Latin inscription from Pope Paul VI’s address at the close of the third session of the Second Vatican Council runs along the wall beneath the cornice. The council, held from 1962 to 1965, addressed Roman Catholic liturgy, doctrine, and relations with the modern world.
Romanesque crypt
Crypt of the Madonna of the Seven Sorrows
Beneath the transept lies the Romanesque crypt of the Madonna of the Seven Sorrows, commonly called the Crypt of the Addolorata. Three aisles are divided by white-stone columns whose capitals came from early Christian buildings. The decorated vaults carry eighteenth-century paintings by Michele Ricciardi, while a modern white-marble altar follows the crypt’s Romanesque character.
Burial corridor and underground remains
A long corridor from the right aisle leads to the burial place of several Avellinese bishops, including Bishop Pasquale Venezia. Stairs descend from the crypt toward an ancient mortuary sacellum, a small sacred or funerary chamber, and associated Lombard tunnels. Before the 1980 earthquake, the crypt also housed the Confraternity of the Seven Sorrows.
